FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The Silt terrace erosion prevention invention, called STEP, is a low cost process to stop gully erosion by the creation of a series of silt filled terraces over a period of time to provide at maturity, a permanent land bridge of grass strip vegetation across what previously was an uncrossable ditch barricade to contour farming.
Erosion control on tillable fields has been a long standing concern of farmers. In areas where storms and intermittent water run off have created gully erosion, various methods have been employed to counteract the loss of valuable soil and disruption of agricultural pursuits, especially for contour farming. The known methods of erosion control in prior art are expensive and cause major topsoil loss and disruption and/or are temporary. Few have provided long range satisfaction to the farm operator.
Technology now provides rugged, durable, woven plastic sacks, which can be filled with dirt dug at the site of STEP. These, when placed in the specific V-shaped arrangement in the streambed form structural STEP dam terraces. The process for which this patent is claimed causes sediment to be impounded and concentrates water flows in the center of the stream thus protecting the gully terrace from washout and side banks from further erosion.